Decoration Day, the original name for Memorial Day, started in 1868, to remember those who fell in the Civil War, and to decorate their graves. Although I have many relatives and ancestors who proudly served in the armed forces, from the earliest colonial wars to Afghanistan and Iraq, as far as I can tell, I [...]
If you flip through the pages of an old town book in Vermont, you might find, tucked away between tax records and town meeting minutes, something like this example from Putney, in Windham County, with a few pages of identical entries, each with the statement, “I do not agree in Religious Opinion with a Majority [...]
If I give you the title of the book I could just stop there. It pretty much is self-describing: The Town Officer: Or, The Power and Duty of Selectmen, Town Clerks, Town Treasurers, Overseers of the Poor, Assessors, Constables, Collectors of taxes, Surveyors of Highways, Surveyors of Lumber, Fence Viewers, Field Drivers, Measurers of Wood [...]